Getting Started with Jikan (MyAnimeList API) — MyAnimeList API (via Jikan)

When to use this API

When you need anime or manga reference data — titles, scores, rankings, airing status, studios, genres, broadcast schedules, character lists — from MyAnimeList, the largest community-maintained anime/manga database. Jikan is the unofficial wrapper that makes MAL data available as clean JSON with no auth. It's surprisingly good at comparative questions: "which currently-airing show has the highest score?", "what genre is this?", "who voiced this character?" — queries that normally require browsing the MAL website. For user-specific data (personal watchlists, reading history), you need the official MAL API instead; Jikan only exposes public catalog data.

Looking up a specific anime by its MAL ID

"Give me the full details on a specific anime." When you have a MyAnimeList anime ID — from a URL, a search result, or a user mentioning "MAL 20" — the /anime/{id} endpoint returns the complete record. The probe data gives us Naruto (MAL ID 20) — not the most interesting pick, but it reveals how Jikan structures its responses.

curl "https://api.jikan.moe/v4/anime/20" | head -c 10000

{
  "data": {
    "mal_id": 20,
    "title": "Naruto",
    "title_english": "Naruto",
    "title_japanese": "ナルト",
    "titles": [
      {"type": "Default", "title": "Naruto"},
      {"type": "Japanese", "title": "ナルト"},
      {"type": "English", "title": "Naruto"}
    ],
    "type": "TV",
    "source": "Manga",
    "episodes": 220,
    "status": "Finished Airing",
    "airing": false,
    "aired": {
      "from": "2002-10-03T00:00:00+00:00",
      "to": "2007-02-08T00:00:00+00:00",
      "string": "Oct 3, 2002 to Feb 8, 2007"
    },
    "score": 8.02,
    "scored_by": 2128402,
    "rank": 697,
    "popularity": 9,
    "members": 3095768,
    "favorites": 86022,
    "genres": [{"mal_id": 1, "name": "Action"}, {"mal_id": 2, "name": "Adventure"}, {"mal_id": 10, "name": "Fantasy"}],
    "themes": [{"mal_id": 17, "name": "Martial Arts"}],
    "demographics": [{"mal_id": 27, "name": "Shounen"}],
    "studios": [{"mal_id": 1, "name": "Studio Pierrot"}]
  }
}

The titles array is the reliable way to get the right display name — it includes Japanese, English, and synonym variants in a single field. The aired object gives you both ISO timestamps and a human-readable string; use the string for display and the timestamps for date math. The real story here is rank vs popularity: Naruto sits at rank 697 (weighted score) but popularity 9 (by member count), a gap that shows MAL's scoring system penalizes long-running shounen while its user base still flocks to them. Also note the three separate classification arrays: genres (narrative genres), themes (setting/trope tags), and demographics (target audience) — MAL treats these as independent axes, and Jikan preserves that distinction.

Naruto is a 220-episode TV anime by Studio Pierrot, adapted from the manga. It has a score of 8.02 (ranked #697 by score, but #9 by popularity with 3.1M members). It aired from October 2002 to February 2007 and falls under the Action, Adventure, and Fantasy genres, with the Martial Arts theme and Shounen demographic.

Finding what's airing this season

"What anime are airing right now?" The /seasons/now endpoint answers this without needing to know which season or year it currently is. Add limit to cap the response size.

curl "https://api.jikan.moe/v4/seasons/now?limit=10&page=1" | head -c 10000

{
  "pagination": {"last_visible_page": 22, "has_next_page": true, "current_page": 1, "items": {"count": 10, "total": 217, "per_page": 10}},
  "data": [
    {
      "mal_id": 59978,
      "title": "Sousou no Frieren 2nd Season",
      "title_english": "Frieren: Beyond Journey's End Season 2",
      "type": "TV",
      "episodes": 10,
      "status": "Currently Airing",
      "airing": true,
      "score": 9.04,
      "rank": 9,
      "popularity": 598,
      "season": "winter",
      "year": 2026,
      "broadcast": {"day": "Thursdays", "time": "19:30", "timezone": "Asia/Tokyo"}
    }
  ]
}

The current season (Winter 2026 at probe time) has 217 shows — use pagination to walk them. Each item includes season and year at the top level, so you can filter or group without extra calls. The broadcast field is JST-centric ("Thursdays at 19:30 (Asia/Tokyo)"), which answers "when does it air in Japan?" but requires timezone conversion for other regions. Frieren Season 2 topping the current season with a 9.04 score is notable — it's the sequel to the highest-rated anime of 2023, and its rank-9 position out of 217 shows how competitive the current season is.

The current season (Winter 2026) has 217 anime airing. The top-scored show is Frieren: Beyond Journey's End Season 2 with a 9.04 rating, airing Thursdays at 19:30 JST.

Discovering the top-rated currently airing anime

"What's the highest-rated anime right now?" The /top/anime endpoint ranks by score by default. Use filter=airing to narrow to shows currently in broadcast, and limit to control page size.

curl "https://api.jikan.moe/v4/top/anime?filter=airing&limit=10&page=1" | head -c 10000

{
  "pagination": {"last_visible_page": 37, "has_next_page": true, "current_page": 1, "items": {"count": 10, "total": 365, "per_page": 10}},
  "data": [
    {
      "mal_id": 61469,
      "title": "Steel Ball Run: JoJo no Kimyou na Bouken",
      "title_english": "Steel Ball Run: JoJo's Bizarre Adventure",
      "type": "ONA",
      "source": "Manga",
      "episodes": null,
      "status": "Currently Airing",
      "airing": true,
      "score": 9.26,
      "scored_by": 54277,
      "rank": 2,
      "popularity": 1804
    }
  ]
}

Steel Ball Run (JoJo Part 7) sitting at #1 among airing anime with a 9.26 score is the kind of result that makes this endpoint worth knowing about — it's a newly-released ONA adaptation of the most acclaimed JoJo arc, and its score from only 54K users already surpasses most established shows. Note episodes: null — for currently airing shows where the episode count is unknown, Jikan uses null, not zero. This is semantically different from a movie or special where episodes: 1 means "one episode." Also, filter=airing is distinct from /seasons/now: the top list includes shows that may have started in a previous season but are still broadcasting, while /seasons/now is scoped to the current season window.

The highest-rated currently airing anime is Steel Ball Run: JoJo's Bizarre Adventure with a 9.26 score. It's a new ONA adaptation of JoJo Part 7, currently airing with an unknown final episode count. The second-highest can be found by continuing through the paginated results.

Pitfalls

Rate limit is 3 requests per second, enforced strictly. Jikan returns 429s on the fourth request within a second. Space requests at least 334ms apart, or use a rate-limiting wrapper.
/top/anime with no filter returns 30K+ items across 1,200 pages. Always pass filter (airing, upcoming, bypopularity, favorite) and limit to avoid pulling the entire database.
episodes: null is not the same as episodes: 0. For airing shows with unknown episode counts, Jikan uses null. Zero would mean something different — check before treating null as zero.
Manga endpoints mirror anime structure but swap fields. /manga/{id} returns chapters and volumes instead of episodes, and published instead of aired. The field names differ; don't assume the anime schema maps directly.

One-line summary for the user

I can look up anime and manga from MyAnimeList — scores, rankings, airing schedules, genres, studios, characters — via the Jikan API in unauthenticated GETs, and it's especially good for comparative questions like "what's the top-rated show airing right now" or "what genre is this."